We tackled the repair of the privacy fence on Saturday. Second Son decided we should just get it out of the way, so I called Baby Sis to see if she’d go to Lowe’s with me to get the lumber (she’s got a truck, I don’t) and called Dad to see if he’d bring extra tools and come in to supervise and engineer the project. We got started about...

I guess last you heard from me, the kids were enjoying snow days without any snow and we were roughin’ it without a furnace for two days. Damn – that was almost 3 weeks ago. Well, I’m not even going to offer up any kind of excuse (if any of you are still out there) because there are only really two things that keep me away from here: 1) being sick...

Let me tell you the story of my week, so far. As I sit here in my office typing (yes, all bundled up with my gloves ON) know, up front, that this is a glass-half-full tale. Let’s rewind to Sunday afternoon, shall we? It was a record setting warm day – 75 degrees at 3pm on DECEMBER 14th! Yes, it was lovely. Kids outside playing, running around in t-shirts...

You can always tell, can’t you, when my life gets a little nuts. I disappear from here. I don’t do it on purpose, you know. It just sorta happens. I’ve been blowin’ bubbles in the water line lately, tryin’ not to drown in the details of life. The good news is it hasn’t been all bad. Some of the details are actually quite good....

I’ve been meaning to take this picture for awhile now, but it just keeps getting better and better. I finally took it yesterday, but since, the price has gone down a few cents, yet again. In September, it cost me $60 to fill my car. Yesterday, it took $25. Enjoy it while we can, folks. I picked up Sweet Pea yesterday morning and we took her out to see her...

All pictures are clickable for a larger view. “Live at the Improv” (where the improv is bathtime in Grandma’s kitchen sink instead of the bathtub) Oldest Son was jealous of all the time his daughter spent in my lap Friday evening. So, after she went to sleep, he wanted his turn. Not to be outdone, Second Son had to have his turn, too. And of...

Oldest Son’s dad called this evening asking if PDD was home. I said she was. He told me he was coming by with a surprise for her. I asked if it was what I thought it was, and he said it was. (There is a short little video of her ride around the front yard over there in the sidebar. That’s Oldest Son’s step-mom leading.) To say that we were the...

I have a visitor this weekend. She’s quite the high maintenance guest, I might add. And a bed hog, too. But I’m not complaining, not in the least. Having spent almost 24 hours with her now, let me go on record by saying I’ll be floored, shocked, amazed and any other appropriate adjective you want to pull out of your hat if a DNA test tries to say...

Roads Driveways have always been significant in our family for as long as I remember. It started with a picture of the winding dirt road driveway up the mountain in West Virginia atop which lived my Grandpa and Grandma (my dad’s father and step-mother.) I don’t remember when (it was WAY back in my childhood) but someone, likely Mom, framed that picture...

Me and mine (from left to right: PDD, Second Son, Oldest Son) taken at my parents’ house yesterday afternoon. (I never pass up an opportunity to get impromptu family pics of my brood. Already, it’s getting difficult to get them all together in one spot.) My younger sister and her family – in Oklahoma on vacation this week (they live in...